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NCHS-5
Civil War and Reconstruction (1850-1877)
Resources:
Colonial City: Revolutionary Battleground
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Urban Crisis: Fire and Water
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Urban Crisis: Disease, Crime, and Space
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Abolitionism and Antislavery
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The Civil War
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Relevant transcripts: Resource Type: Primary Source In the spring of 1861, Fort Sumter, located in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, remained in Union hands despite South Carolina's succession. The Confederacy fired on the fort in April and inaugurated the Civil War. Mississippi's Declaration of Secession Resource Type: Primary Source The first state to secede was South Carolina, doing so on December 20, 1860. Before the end of February, all the states of the Deep South (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) had seceded. African Americans and the Civil War Resource Type: Document-Based Question This rich variety of primary sources allows students to evaluate the role and historical agency of African Americans. When W. E. B. DuBois wrote Black Reconstruction in America (1935), he quoted a contemporary historian who gave no credit to African Americans for the freedom they won. These documents provide evidence of the roles African Americans played in the history of the Civil War and the larger history of their fight for freedom and equality. Harriet Tubman's Letter to Lincoln Resource Type: Primary Source After escaping from slavery in 1849, Harriet Tubman became one of the most prominent abolitionists and a driving force behind the various secret escape routes for slaves. In this quotation from a letter by another great abolitionist, Lydia Maria Child, Tubman seeks to influence President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln's Letter to Horace Greeley Resource Type: Primary Source President Abraham Lincoln responds on August 22, 1862, to the publisher Horace Greeley, who three days earlier criticized the government for not making emancipation a key war aim. What Greeley did not know and what Lincoln in his letter does not divulge is that a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation was on Lincoln's desk as he wrote this letter to Greeley. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation Resource Type: Primary Source Read the Emancipation Proclamation to determine whom exactly it set free. Was the Proclamation issued because the war was not going well for the North or because African Americans were demanding that the destruction of slavery become the key aim of the war? Recruiting Poster Resource Type: Primary Source President Abraham Lincoln did not endorse the active recruitment of free African Americans into the Union army until 1863. African American Soldiers Resource Type: Primary Source This was one of many battles in which the new African American troops distinguished themselves. African American Troops Liberating Slaves Resource Type: Primary Source As the African American presence in the Northern war effort increased, so did the chances of freeing slaves from Southern plantations. A Man Knows a Man Resource Type: Primary Source Military service, especially in battle, was often seen as a rite of passage that turned boys into men. Physical scarring or maiming served as the visible symbol of manhood tested and earned through combat. The Thirteenth Amendment Resource Type: Primary Source The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is one of the legacies of the Civil War. Moot Court: Central Park on Trial Resource Type: Classroom Simulation This simulation, a moot court, engages students in social and moral reform. By exploring how nineteeth-century social and political elites dispossessed various groups such as African Americans in order to build Central Park, students will understand how the present-day problems of gentrification and urban renewal have their roots in nineteeth-century reform. General Benjamin Butler to General Winfield Scott Resource Type: Primary Source Two Union generals discuss emancipation. The Second Confiscation Act Resource Type: Primary Source The U.S. Congress passsed legislation to inhibit treason against the Union. The Secession Crisis Resource Type: Document-Based Question This selection of primary sources allows students to interpret the Civil War as an ideological battle, pitting abolitionists against slavery's apologists, and Northerners against Southerners. Students will understand why most of the Southern states chose secession over union. Slavery a Positive Good Resource Type: Primary Source John C. Calhoun was vice president of the United States (1825-32) and U.S. senator from South Carolina for most of the period from 1832 to 1850. The Civil War and the Expansion of Slavery Resource Type: Document-Based Question This DBQ focuses on the decade of crisis, the 1850s, during which the question of the expansion of slavery tore the country apart. The documents selected include the classic evidence that can be used to prove that the expansion of slavery was the most important cause of the Civil War, 1861–65. Calhoun on the Compromise of 1850 Resource Type: Primary Source John C. Calhoun became the South's most powerful advocate as senator from South Carolina for most of the period from 1832 to 1850. Bleeding Kansas Resource Type: Primary Source In the summer of 1856, advocates of Free States flocked to Kansas in anticipation of the popular sovereignty vote. A House Divided Resource Type: Primary Source Abraham Lincoln accepts the Republican Party's nomination for U.S. senator from Illinois. Lincoln ran against Stephen A. Douglas, the proponent of popular sovereignty. National Democratic Party Platform of 1860 Resource Type: Primary Source In 1860, the Democratic Party split along sectional lines, leaving the Southern Democrats as the dominant party of the South. In the 1860 presidential election, the Southern Democrats won every state of the Deep South, the first states to secede. Crittenden's Proposed Amendment Resource Type: Primary Source Abraham Lincoln has been elected President and the threat of secession hangs over the Union. What is Crittenden's plan? Response to the Crittenden Amendment Resource Type: Primary Source This editorial responds to Crittenden's proposal to amend the Constitution. Mississippi's Declaration of Secession Resource Type: Primary Source The first state to secede was South Carolina, doing so on December 20, 1860. Before the end of February, all the states of the Deep South (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) had seceded. Why Did the South (Excluding the Border States) Secede? Resource Type: Point-Counterpoint The cause of the Civil War is hotly debated and contested by historians. Some disagree with Eric Foner's thesis and assign to slavery a lesser role in causing the Civil War. Two interpretations that predate Foner are worth mentioning: the economic one, put forth by Charles and Mary Beard; and the political one, proposed by Avery Craven and James G. Randall, which maintains that the war was caused by a "blundering generation" of 1850s leaders, who missed the opportunity to compromise. Decisions of Slaves to Leave the Plantation: Should I Stay or Should I Go? Resource Type: Classroom Simulation In this simulation students will examine the very complex decision that slaves faced regarding whether to leave the plantations in the early years of the Civil War and whether to join the Union forces. Students will understand how a single decision gravely affected the lives of slaves, their families, the outcome of the war, and even the period of Reconstruction. The Secession Crisis Resource Type: Document-Based Question This selection of primary sources allows students to interpret the Civil War as an ideological battle, pitting abolitionists against slavery's apologists, and Northerners against Southerners. Students will understand why most of the Southern states chose secession over union. Illustrations of the Pro-Slavery Argument Resource Type: Primary Source These illustrations support the institution of slavery. Why? The Civil War and the Expansion of Slavery Resource Type: Document-Based Question This DBQ focuses on the decade of crisis, the 1850s, during which the question of the expansion of slavery tore the country apart. The documents selected include the classic evidence that can be used to prove that the expansion of slavery was the most important cause of the Civil War, 1861–65. Calhoun on the Compromise of 1850 Resource Type: Primary Source John C. Calhoun became the South's most powerful advocate as senator from South Carolina for most of the period from 1832 to 1850. Expansion of Slavery into the Territories Resource Type: Point-Counterpoint Eric Foner argues that the debate over whether the territories (particularly land acquired from the Louisiana Purchase (1803) and through the Mexican-American War (1846–48)) would be carved into slave or free states was the key political issue of the 1850s and the major source of conflict between northern and southern states. A teacher compares the interpretation of William Gienapp with Foner's view. Recruiting Poster Resource Type: Primary Source President Abraham Lincoln did not endorse the active recruitment of free African Americans into the Union army until 1863. Decisions of Slaves to Leave the Plantation: Should I Stay or Should I Go? Resource Type: Classroom Simulation In this simulation students will examine the very complex decision that slaves faced regarding whether to leave the plantations in the early years of the Civil War and whether to join the Union forces. Students will understand how a single decision gravely affected the lives of slaves, their families, the outcome of the war, and even the period of Reconstruction. The Emancipation Proclamation Resource Type: Point-Counterpoint Eric Foner considers the Emancipation Proclamation to have been the turning point of the Civil War (1861–65), of the history of slavery, and for President Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) himself. Primarily through the work of Ira Berlin and others, historians have learned a great deal about the behavior of slaves before and after the Emancipation Proclamation. What emerged from this investigation is what Foner calls a new synthesis "that sees slavery as the most crucial problem of antebellum American life and the fundamental cause of the Civil War, and the myriad consequences of emancipation as the central themes of the war and Reconstruction." The Role of African Americans in the Civil War Resource Type: Point-Counterpoint Although there has been no major attack on the view that African Americans played a decisive role in winning the Civil War, it is also true that, with the exception of W.E.B. Du Bois in Black Reconstruction, there were no historians writing prior to 1960, who would have agreed with Foner's interpretation on the decisive role played by African Americans. A teacher explores how, prior to the rise of the civil-rights movement in the mid-1950s, professional historians simply had been uninterested in the behavior of African Americans, either as slaves or as soldiers. African American Soldiers Resource Type: Primary Source This was one of many battles in which the new African American troops distinguished themselves. African American Troops Liberating Slaves Resource Type: Primary Source As the African American presence in the Northern war effort increased, so did the chances of freeing slaves from Southern plantations. A Man Knows a Man Resource Type: Primary Source Military service, especially in battle, was often seen as a rite of passage that turned boys into men. Physical scarring or maiming served as the visible symbol of manhood tested and earned through combat. The Role of African Americans in the Civil War Resource Type: Point-Counterpoint Although there has been no major attack on the view that African Americans played a decisive role in winning the Civil War, it is also true that, with the exception of W.E.B. Du Bois in Black Reconstruction, there were no historians writing prior to 1960, who would have agreed with Foner's interpretation on the decisive role played by African Americans. A teacher explores how, prior to the rise of the civil-rights movement in the mid-1950s, professional historians simply had been uninterested in the behavior of African Americans, either as slaves or as soldiers. The Draft Riots Resource Type: Primary Source Recruiting station for the Union Army, in City Hall Park (1864). | |
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